JOY AND OUTRAGE

By ROBIN TONER

Published: September 29, 2000

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28—
Abortion rights supporters celebrated a long-sought victory today, with the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the abortion pill RU-486, but acknowledged that it could be an exceedingly fragile one.

Abortion opponents denounced the administration and the agency for pushing through a drug ''that will take lives instead of saving them,'' as Senator Tim Hutchinson, Republican of Arkansas, put it. They vowed to keep fighting, legislatively and politically.

Both sides agreed on one thing: the drug agency's ruling highlights the stakes for November's election, given the stark differences between the two parties on the abortion issue. With the White House, the House and perhaps even the Senate up for grabs, along with the possibility of a reshaping of the Supreme Court by the next president, this election could have major implications for federal abortion policy.

''While this is a sweet victory, it could be short-lived if we elect an anti-choice president,'' said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, which has endorsed Vice President Al Gore. ''You have all three branches of government in play right now, with the real possibility that strong conservatives could end up controlling all three.''

Representative J. C. Watts Jr., chairman of the House Republican Conference and an abortion opponent, declared in a statement that he was confident that a new administration ''with moral leadership and a commitment to the family will reverse this Clinton-Gore decision.'' He asserted, ''Do-it-yourself abortion has no place in a civilized society.''

At a news conference on Capitol Hill today, other anti-abortion legislators, including Mr. Hutchinson, called for committee hearings on what they described as the drug agency's ''questionable approval process in regard to RU-486.'' Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, asserted that the agency's decision ''was pushed by politics and not by health,'' while Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, described the drug as ''baby poison.''

For many years, RU-486 has been a symbol of the differences between the two parties on abortion -- President George Bush blocked its importation; President Clinton called for a review of the drug just days after taking office. The reaction from the presidential candidates today, while brief and careful, highlighted those differences anew.

Gov. George W. Bush issued a statement declaring that he believed the agency's decision was ''wrong'' and feared that it would make abortions ''more and more common, rather than more and more rare.'' He added, ''As president, I will work to build a culture that respects life.'' Mr. Bush supports a ban on abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of a woman is at stake.

When asked specifically what Mr. Bush would do about the agency's action, a spokesman, Scott McClellan, responded: ''It appears the president does not have the authority to order drugs off the market. As president, he would order a careful review to ensure that the F.D.A. considered all the risks and did not do this as a result of political pressure from the White House.''

Mr. Gore issued a statement declaring that he was ''pleased'' with the agency's decision, and added, ''Today's decision is not about politics, but the health and safety of American women and a woman's fundamental right to choose.'' The administration, meanwhile, dismissed the notion that the drug agency had acted because of political pressure.

For all the political furor today, it was not clear how much it would push the abortion issue into a campaign debate that until now has been dominated by the concerns of moderate swing voters, like health care, Medicare and education.

But Geoffrey Garin, a Democratic pollster, argued that it could make a difference with ''independent and Republican-leaning women who are pro-choice,'' who ''might feel perfectly comfortable with Bush on a whole host of other issues.''

Reflecting that battle for the center, opponents of abortion focused much of their fire today on the agency's approval process, the dangers they asserted the drug would present to women, and the notion that it would increase the number of abortions.

Advocates of RU-486 have long hoped that it will eventually make abortion far more accessible, private and harder to target by opponents. The struggles so long centered on the nation's abortion clinics would, some of these advocates suggested, slowly fade as the abortion pill took hold.

David J. Garrow, a professor at Emory University who is a historian of the abortion rights movement, argued that while the agency's decision was a victory for abortion rights, ''people in the past have perhaps created an exaggerated climate of expectations for RU-486.''

He noted, for example, that many women might not want the multiple doctor visits that RU-486 entailed, and so might still choose surgical abortions. Moreover, he added, many women may not discover their pregnancy and decide to abort it early enough to use the abortion pill.

As for a waning of the political struggle, there were few signs of that today, at least in the short term. Representative Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who has tried to block RU-486 in the past, declared that today's announcement was unprecedented, saying, ''Never before has the F.D.A. approved a drug intended to kill people.''

Moments later, at a news conference of Democratic women from the House, Representative Lynn Woolsey of California declared of the agency's action, ''It's about time!'' and added that the decision ''has taken women further away from the back alleys.''

Senator Hutchinson of Arkansas reflected: ''The idea that it so normalizes the process that it's no longer a question, I don't think that's going to happen. The human life issue is too important to too many people; it's going to continue to be a divisive and very front-burner issue.''